For the third year, Calabash celebrants are toasting the season with Oktoberfest, set for 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, in the parking lot and on an adjacent lot at Sheltered Treasures Thrift Shop at 10045 Beach Drive.

This year’s edition of the German celebration has a new location and organizer — Providence Home, which is Brunswick County’s only youth shelter.

Holden Beach is rolling out its annual fall Festival by the Sea from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, at the Holden Beach Pavilion under the bridge on Jordan Boulevard.

The two-day weekend event launches with a parade down the Holden Beach Causeway from about 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. It’s the only day of the year people can walk across the Holden Beach bridge as traffic shuts down for the annual parade.

This is the International Year of Pulses. That’s according to the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations. The goal of this declaration is to heighten the awareness of pulses and to celebrate the role of pulses in feeding the world.
I’m betting many of you are wondering: What’s a pulse? Hint: I’m not talking about the pulse where you can feel your heart rate.

I hope you will remember from your introductory economic botany class that the grasses, as a family (called the Poaceae), surely represent the most important plants in the world, as far as human economy goes. Practically every human culture has developed around the growing and consumption of at least one grass species.

I have always been in touch with the core reality of my being a first generation Italian-American. It has colored my life experience in multiple ways. Many of the exaggerated idiosyncrasies discovered in a Mediterranean heritage are also uncovered in my fairly boisterous personality, the loudness of my laughter and the depth of my sorrows. My hands are in motion whenever I speak. My humor could rarely be perceived as subtle or dry.

Do you make snap decisions? Or do you sweat it out — pondering every single detail?

Whether you shoot from the hip or play out every possible scenario, there’s no right or wrong approach. There is, however, something within your control after you’ve made a decision. And that has to do with sticking to your guns instead of ruminating over every little thing.